DOCSLIB.ORG

Multi-Cultural Shakespeare in Britain 1

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Multi-Cultural Shakespeare in Britain 1 Impact case study (REF3b) Institution: University of Warwick Unit of Assessment: 29 English Language and Literature Title of case study: Multi-Cultural Shakespeare in Britain 1. Summary of the impact Shakespeare is at the heart of British culture, and the ways in which we stage his plays help define our understanding of ourselves. Tony Howard’s research has highlighted the central role of outstanding Black and Asian actors in shaping and enriching our relationship with those plays. By uncovering the history of these performers in The Robeson Project and Multi-Cultural Shakespeare in Britain, the research describes how Shakespeare has mediated between BME cultures and concepts of national identity and inclusion. It has restored the contribution of Black and Asian actors to the history of British theatre and re-connected contemporary Black and Asian actors with their artistic and cultural heritage. It has stimulated tourism through exhibitions and festivals, and inspired new forms of artistic expression. 2. Underpinning research Embedded in his broader research interests in the social and political contexts of Shakespearean performance, the two projects – The Robeson Project and Multi-Cultural Shakespeare in Britain – explore the use of the classical theatrical repertoire, especially Shakespeare, as a vehicle for ideological debate and for political self-expression. Combined, the research offers a history of Black and Asian actors playing Shakespeare within the turbulent social and political landscape of race relations in the USA and UK, and Cold War politics. In 2008 Professor Tony Howard (1973 – present) was awarded a Creative Fellowship by CAPITAL, a HEFCE-funded collaboration between Warwick University and the Royal Shakespeare Company, to investigate the career of singer, actor and human rights activist Paul Robeson. In 1930, Robeson became the first black actor to play Othello in Britain since 1860. Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Robeson’s performance of Othello at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1959 – a landmark performance in the history of British theatre – the project both celebrated this milestone and explored the social conflicts surrounding it. During 2008 Howard examined almost 3,000 British and American security surveillance documents (released under the US Freedom of Information Act or by the UK Public Records Office) on Robeson, his wife Eslanda, and his compatriot Sam Wanamaker (who played Iago at Stratford), to reveal the authorities’ response to Robeson’s presence in Britain and the ways in which Robeson’s art was affected by surveillance and suppression. Howard recorded and archived interviews with politicians and supporters who had campaigned for Robeson, actors from the 1959 Othello company and audience members who saw the performance, and members of the Black community – actors, directors, producers from several generations – who have been inspired by his example. The research was published in an article in Shakespeare Bulletin (2010) which focused on the ways in which Robeson made Othello a symbol of race relations in the twentieth century and how his opponents, namely the FBI and MI5, had attempted to write him out of history. The project also resulted in exhibitions, podcasts, multi-media-presentations, a verbatim theatre piece and a radio documentary. Building on his research into Robeson as an important figure in the history of black theatre in Britain, Howard embarked on his current research project, Multicultural Shakespeare in Britain, which maps the history of non-white actors' and directors' growing role in British cultural life over several generations, through an examination of their involvement in Shakespearean performance. Howard is exploring ways in which the changing face of British Shakespearean performance since the 1930s has reflected the emergence of a multicultural society, providing an insight into the evolution of British society since World War II. Following Robeson’s performance of Othello at Stratford in 1959, opportunities for black actors grew in the 1960s. However, integrated opportunities were hard to come by as inclusive casting policies were not adopted by major theatres until the 1980s. As the country’s demographics changed, innovations were introduced and Black and Asian theatre companies were using Shakespeare to address their concerns: postcolonialism, social integration, and fundamentalism. Together these projects represent the reclamation of brilliant but largely marginalised or forgotten artists. 3. References to the research Howard’s most relevant publications include: Page 1 Impact case study (REF3b) ‘Blood on the Bright Young Things: Shakespeare in the Thirties’, in Maggie Gale and Clive Barker (ed.), British Theatre Between the Wars (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp.135- 161. [chapter, edited volume; peer reviewed] ‘Icons and Labourers: Some Political Actresses’, in Maggie Gale and John Stokes (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Actress (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp.134- 153. [chapter, edited volume; peer reviewed] ‘Shakespeare and Television Genres: Evolving Forms and Shifting Definitions’, Anthony Guneratne (ed.), Shakespeare and Genre (London: Macmillan, 2011), pp.205-222. [chapter, edited volume; peer reviewed] ‘“My Travail’s History”: Perspectives on the Road to Othello, Stratford 1959’, Shakespeare Bulletin 28.1 (2010): 93-100 [peer reviewed journal article] Evidence of Quality: British Theatre Between the Wars was described as an ‘excellent collection’, Modern Language Review, 98:3 (Jul 2003), 701-2 and was reviewed in Theatre Journal, 54:4 (Dec 2002), 659-661. Research Grants: CAPITAL Fellowship (2008), £48,298 (pro rata). AHRC Standard Research Grant, ‘Multicultural Shakespeare in Britain, 1930-2010’, PI Howard (2012-2015), £609,997 (f.e.c). AHRC peer reviews: ‘An original, important, timely and necessary project, affecting not just theatre and academia but life in the UK at many levels’; ‘A much-needed political history … a very high quality proposal, arising out of an excellent body of work…a project of immense reach and range… This project has the most outputs and greatest dissemination strategy of any AHRC project I have seen.’ 4. Details of the impact By exploring how ethnic minorities have performed, understood and re-interpreted Shakespeare, the research has contributed to a greater understanding of the dramatic social, cultural and demographic changes in twentieth-century Britain. Public beneficiaries include theatre goers, theatre professionals – actors, directors and producers – especially those from the British Black and Asian communities, activists and community groups. Having collaborated at every stage with leading UK multi-ethnic cultural organisations and individuals, the research has preserved and re- presented the multicultural nature of Britain’s theatre history contributing to public discourse about contemporary Britain, multiculturalism and the arts. It has provided stimulus to tourism through exhibitions and festival activities, and has resulted in the creation of new forms of artistic expression. 1. The Robeson Project A Slave’s Son at Stratford To connect theatregoers with the life and legacy of Paul Robeson, Howard created two panel exhibitions. The first A Slave’s Son at Stratford, toured alongside the RSC’s 2009 production of Othello which played in Coventry (30 Jan – 7 Feb; 5,015 audiences); Hackney Borough, London (10-14 Feb; 5,662 audience); Newcastle-upon-Tyne (17-21 Feb; 3,069 audience); Oxford (24-28 Feb) and Liverpool (3-7 Mar). During the rehearsals of Othello, Howard presented the research, including sound tapes of Robeson’s 1944 and 1959 performances to the director and cast. The effect on the production – in which Ghanaian actor, Patrice Naiambana, related his performance to the African diaspora and to Robeson as a crucial model for the black artist – is recorded in John Russell Brown, The Routledge Companion to Actors’ Shakespeare (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 178. To accompany the exhibition, Howard gave multi-media presentations (including sound tapes never heard publicly before) in these theatres as well as at Bristol Old Vic (5 Jun 2009) and Shakespeare’s Globe in London (approx. audience 110). In the cities where, in 1949, Robeson gave concerts under police surveillance, Howard discussed the local police reports and the local authorities’ attempts to control or prevent the event. Many members of Howard’s audience had attended Robeson’s performances in 1959 (and even 1949) and their recollections were recorded and subsequently added to the project’s digital archive, available on the project website. A Slave’s Son at Stratford (augmented with items related to Robeson’s three Othellos and a sound Page 2 Impact case study (REF3b) installation) was invited to become a temporary exhibition at Shakespeare’s Globe Exhibition for two months (4 January– 28 February 2010). The Globe Exhibition (rated one of the top 10 London visitor attractions: London Pass Scheme) receives 300,000 visitors annually; the Robeson exhibit was seen by an estimated 40,000 people. Howard presented the exhibition to the Shakespeare Theatres of America Association (January 2010), a forum for artistic, managerial and educational leadership involving over 100 US and Canadian theatres, and addressed the practitioners’ Inclusion Committee. As a result, he was invited to deliver the keynote paper to the Inaugural Meeting of the Shakespeare Theatre Association (the SAA re-launched as an international
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank Production of Twelfth Night
    2016 shakespeare’s globe Annual review contents Welcome 5 Theatre: The Globe 8 Theatre: The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse 14 Celebrating Shakespeare’s 400th Anniversary 20 Globe Education – Inspiring Young People 30 Globe Education – Learning for All 33 Exhibition & Tour 36 Catering, Retail and Hospitality 37 Widening Engagement 38 How We Made It & How We Spent It 41 Looking Forward 42 Last Words 45 Thank You! – Our Stewards 47 Thank You! – Our Supporters 48 Who’s Who 50 The Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production of Twelfth Night. Photo: Cesare de Giglio The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales. Photo: Steve Tanner WELCOME 2016 – a momentous year – in which the world celebrated the richness of Shakespeare’s legacy 400 years after his death. Shakespeare’s Globe is proud to have played a part in those celebrations in 197 countries and led the festivities in London, where Shakespeare wrote and worked. Our Globe to Globe Hamlet tour travelled 193,000 miles before coming home for a final emotional performance in the Globe to mark the end, not just of this phenomenal worldwide journey, but the artistic handover from Dominic Dromgoole to Emma Rice. A memorable season of late Shakespeare plays in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and two outstanding Globe transfers in the West End ran concurrently with the last leg of the Globe to Globe Hamlet tour. On Shakespeare’s birthday, 23 April, we welcomed President Obama to the Globe. Actors performed scenes from the late plays running in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Southwark Cathedral, a service which was the only major civic event to mark the anniversary in London and was attended by our Patron, HRH the Duke of Edinburgh.
    [Show full text]
  • June 2016 President: Vice President: Simon Russell Beale CBE Nickolas Grace
    No. 495 - June 2016 President: Vice President: Simon Russell Beale CBE Nickolas Grace Nothing like a Dame (make that two!) The VW’s Shakespeare party this year marked Shakespeare’s 452nd birthday as well as the 400th anniversary of his death. The party was a great success and while London, Stratford and many major cultural institutions went, in my view, a bit over-bard (sorry!), the VW’s party was graced by the presence of two Dames - Joan Plowright and Eileen Atkins, two star Shakespeare performers very much associated with the Old Vic. The party was held in the Old Vic rehearsal room where so many greats – from Ninette de Valois to Laurence Olivier – would have rehearsed. Our wonderful Vice-President, Nickolas Grace, introduced our star guests by talking about their associations with the Old Vic; he pointed out that we had two of the best St Joans ever in the room where they would have rehearsed: Eileen Atkins played St Joan for the Prospect Company at the Old Vic in 1977-8; Joan Plowright played the role for the National Theatre at the Old Vic in 1963. Nickolas also read out a letter from Ronald Pickup who had been invited to the party but was away in France. Ronald Pickup said that he often thought about how lucky he was to have six years at the National Theatre, then at Old Vic, at the beginning of his career (1966-72) and it had a huge impact on him. Dame Joan Plowright Dame Joan Plowright then regaled us with some of her memories of the Old Vic, starting with the story of how when she joined the Old Vic school in 1949 part of her ‘training’ was moving chairs in and out of the very room we were in.
    [Show full text]
  • The Future Francis Beaumont
    3340 Early Theatre 20.2 (2017), 201–222 http://dx.doi.org/10.12745/et.20.2.3340 Eoin Price The Future Francis Beaumont This essay attends to Beaumont’s recent performance and reception history, docu- menting a range of academic and popular responses to demonstrate the challenges and affordances of engaging with Beaumont’s plays. The first section examines sev- eral twenty-first century performances of Beaumont plays, focusing especially on the Globe’s stimulating production of The Knight of the Burning Pestle. The second sec- tion considers how Beaumont was both acknowledged and ignored in 2016, the year of his 400th anniversary. The final section suggests some avenues for further research into the performance of Beaumont’s plays. In 1613, illness caused one of the greatest writers of the age to retire from play- wrighting, paving the way for his principal collaborator, John Fletcher, to become the main dramatist for the King’s Men, the company for whom he had writ- ten some of his most popular plays. Three years later, the London literary scene mourned his death. Tributes continued for decades and he was ultimately hon- oured with the posthumous publication of a handsome folio of his works. This is the familiar story of William Shakespeare. It is also the unfamiliar story of Francis Beaumont. The comparison of the two authors’ deaths I have just offered entails a degree of contrivance. Beaumont seemingly retired because he was incapacitated by a stroke, but Shakespeare’s reasons for retiring, and indeed, the nature of his retire- ment, are much less clear.
    [Show full text]
  • Press Release
    PRESS RELEASE Shakespeare’s Globe announces casting for The Taming of the Shrew and Women Beware Women 10 January 2020 Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce full casting for the next two productions opening in the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in February: The Taming of the Shrew, directed by Maria Gaitanidi, and Thomas Middleton’s Women Beware Women, directed by Amy Hodge. In an exciting and experimental production, roles for The Taming of the Shrew are to be played by different company members at different performances. The full company comprises: Raymond Anum: Raymond graduated from RADA last year and recently appeared in Youth Without God at The Coronet Theatre. Theatre credits while training include Love and Money, Romeo & Juliet, Philistines and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (RADA). Ryan Ellsworth: Ryan returns to the Globe, having performed in a Read Not Dead rehearsed reading of The Custom of the Country in 2017. Other recent theatre work includes The Wizard of Oz (Sheffield Crucible), Labyrinth (Hampstead Theatre), Henry V (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Theatr Clwyd). Television includes Angel of Darkness (Netflix) and Island at War (ITV). Film includes A Royal Winter and Bel Ami. Mattia Mariotti: Mattia’s recent theatre work includes La Mai Banale Banalità del Male (Teatro Instabile Genoa), The Temptation of St Anthony (Venue 45, Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and We Long Endure (Barron Theatre, St Andrews). Television includes Invisible Milk. Evelyn Miller: Evelyn returns to the Playhouse having appeared in Deep Night Dark Night earlier this year. She was also part of the Globe on Tour 2019 company, where she performed around the world in Pericles, Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night.
    [Show full text]
  • Tom Stoppard
    Tom Stoppard: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center Descriptive Summary Creator: Stoppard, Tom Title: Tom Stoppard Papers 1939-2000 (bulk 1970-2000) Dates: 1939-2000 (bulk 1970-2000) Extent: 149 document cases, 9 oversize boxes, 9 oversize folders, 10 galley folders (62 linear feet) Abstract: The papers of this British playwright consist of typescript and handwritten drafts, revision pages, outlines, and notes; production material, including cast lists, set drawings, schedules, and photographs; theatre programs; posters; advertisements; clippings; page and galley proofs; dust jackets; correspondence; legal documents and financial papers, including passports, contracts, and royalty and account statements; itineraries; appointment books and diary sheets; photographs; sheet music; sound recordings; a scrapbook; artwork; minutes of meetings; and publications. Call Number: Manuscript Collection MS-4062 Language English Access Open for research Administrative Information Acquisition Purchases and gifts, 1991-2000 Processed by Katherine Mosley, 1993-2000 Repository: Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin Stoppard, Tom Manuscript Collection MS-4062 Biographical Sketch Playwright Tom Stoppard was born Tomas Straussler in Zlin, Czechoslovakia, on July 3, 1937. However, he lived in Czechoslovakia only until 1939, when his family moved to Singapore. Stoppard, his mother, and his older brother were evacuated to India shortly before the Japanese invasion of Singapore in 1941; his father, Eugene Straussler, remained behind and was killed. In 1946, Stoppard's mother, Martha, married British army officer Kenneth Stoppard and the family moved to England, eventually settling in Bristol. Stoppard left school at the age of seventeen and began working as a journalist, first with the Western Daily Press (1954-58) and then with the Bristol Evening World (1958-60).
    [Show full text]
  • Theatre Archive Project Archive
    University of Sheffield Library. Special Collections and Archives Ref: MS 349 Title: Theatre Archive Project: Archive Scope: A collection of interviews on CD-ROM with those visiting or working in the theatre between 1945 and 1968, created by the Theatre Archive Project (British Library and De Montfort University); also copies of some correspondence Dates: 1958-2008 Level: Fonds Extent: 3 boxes Name of creator: Theatre Archive Project Administrative / biographical history: Beginning in 2003, the Theatre Archive Project is a major reinvestigation of British theatre history between 1945 and 1968, from the perspectives of both the members of the audience and those working in the theatre at the time. It encompasses both the post-war theatre archives held by the British Library, and also their post-1968 scripts collection. In addition, many oral history interviews have been carried out with visitors and theatre practitioners. The Project began at the University of Sheffield and later transferred to De Montfort University. The archive at Sheffield contains 170 CD-ROMs of interviews with theatre workers and audience members, including Glenda Jackson, Brian Rix, Susan Engel and Michael Frayn. There is also a collection of copies of correspondence between Gyorgy Lengyel and Michel and Suria Saint Denis, and between Gyorgy Lengyel and Sir John Gielgud, dating from 1958 to 1999. Related collections: De Montfort University Library Source: Deposited by Theatre Archive Project staff, 2005-2009 System of arrangement: As received Subjects: Theatre Conditions of access: Available to all researchers, by appointment Restrictions: None Copyright: According to document Finding aids: Listed MS 349 THEATRE ARCHIVE PROJECT: ARCHIVE 349/1 Interviews on CD-ROM (Alphabetical listing) Interviewee Abstract Interviewer Date of Interview Disc no.
    [Show full text]
  • House of Lords Official Report
    Vol. 804 Tuesday No. 88 14 July 2020 PARLIAMENTARYDEBATES (HANSARD) HOUSE OF LORDS OFFICIAL REPORT ORDEROFBUSINESS Questions Taiwan ..........................................................................................................................1529 Covid-19: Vaccine Availability......................................................................................1532 Trade Agreements .................................................... ....................................................1536 Medical Teaching and Learning: Ethnic Diversity .......................................................1539 House of Lords: Relocation Private Notice Question ................................................................................................1542 Business of the House Timing of Debates.........................................................................................................1546 Business of the House Motion on Standing Orders ...........................................................................................1546 Business of the House Motion on Standing Orders ...........................................................................................1547 Intelligence and Security Committee Membership Motion ......................................................................................................1547 Business and Planning Bill Committee (2nd Day)...................................................................................................1549 Agriculture Bill Committee (3rd Day)...................................................................................................1588
    [Show full text]
  • Ndidi Dike Nnadiekwe (Nigeria) 27
    n.paradoxa online, issue 4 August 1997 Editor: Katy Deepwell n.paradoxa online issue no.4 August 1997 ISSN: 1462-0426 1 Published in English as an online edition by KT press, www.ktpress.co.uk, as issue 4, n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal http://www.ktpress.co.uk/pdf/nparadoxaissue4.pdf August 1997, republished in this form: January 2010 ISSN: 1462-0426 All articles are copyright to the author All reproduction & distribution rights reserved to n.paradoxa and KT press. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, including photocopying and recording, information storage or retrieval, without permission in writing from the editor of n.paradoxa. Views expressed in the online journal are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the editor or publishers. Editor: [email protected] International Editorial Board: Hilary Robinson, Renee Baert, Janis Jefferies, Joanna Frueh, Hagiwara Hiroko, Olabisi Silva. www.ktpress.co.uk The following article was republished in Volume 1, n.paradoxa (print version) January 1998: N.Paradoxa Interview with Gisela Breitling, Berlin artist and art historian n.paradoxa online issue no.4 August 1997 ISSN: 1462-0426 2 List of Contents Editorial 4 VNS Matrix Bitch Mutant Manifesto 6 Katy Deepwell Documenta X : A Critique 9 Janis Jefferies Autobiographical Patterns 14 Ann Newdigate From Plants to Politics : The Particular History of A Saskatchewan Tapestry 22 Katy Deepwell Reading in Detail: Ndidi Dike Nnadiekwe (Nigeria) 27 N.Paradoxa Interview with Gisela Breitling, Berlin artist and art historian 35 Diary of an Ageing Art Slut 44 n.paradoxa online issue no.4 August 1997 ISSN: 1462-0426 3 Reading in Detail : An Analysis of the work of Ndidi Dike Nnadiekwe Katy Deepwell Ndidi Dike Nnadiekwe was born in London.
    [Show full text]
  • Information to Users
    INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproducedthe from microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough,margins, substandard and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletioiL Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313.'761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 9825472 The consciousness of African American women artists: Rage, activism and spiritualism (1860-1930). Interdisciplinary implications for art education Chappell, Brenda Joyce, Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Our Project Is Not to Add to Art History As
    ‘Our project is not to add to art history as we know it, but to change it.’ The establishment of the Association of Art Historians and the emergence of feminist interventions, 1974-1990 Victoria Horne Introduction In 1974 The Burlington Magazine announced that, ‘at an inaugural meeting in Birmingham in March this year an Association of Art Historians was formed with a regular constitution.’1 The following year the AAH began organising national conferences and in 1978 commenced publication of an affiliated journal titled Art History. This was a formative moment in British art history, during which the professional status of the discipline was strengthened within the context of an expanding higher education system. This article investigates the intersections between professional legitimation and disciplinary critique that marked this period in recent history. In 2017, as the UK Association of Art Historians expansively rebrands itself as the Association for Art History, it is worth looking back and taking stock of this earlier moment of disciplinary self-recognition, institutionalisation and diversification. The coincident emergence of the professional organisation for art history scholars and feminist critique provides a fascinating glimpse of the contradictory forces at play in shaping the contemporary field. Women’s unprecedented academic inclusion and consequent investigations into their predecessors’ historical absence demanded the development of new theories, methodologies and ways of looking at, thinking and writing about art and its history. Feminist intellectual enquiry therefore ascended, entwined with the expanded participation of women in art and academia, but not reducible to it. As Deborah Cherry informed readers of Art History in 1982 this enquiry was not intended to be additive but deeply transformative: ‘Our project is not to add to art history as we know it, but to change it.’2 Thus, feminism’s explicitly political scholarship was fuelled by a profound aspiration to reshape the historical imagination of the late twentieth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Christian Slater Returns to the West End As Smooth Talking Sales Shark Ricky Roma
    LIES. GREED. CORRUPTION. IT’S BUSINESS AS USUAL. CLOSE THE DEAL AND YOU'VE WON A CADILLAC; BLOW THE LEAD AND YOU'RE F****D. CHRISTIAN SLATER RETURNS TO THE WEST END AS SMOOTH TALKING SALES SHARK RICKY ROMA IN DAVID MAMET’S CULT CLASSIC GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS ALONGSIDE A KILLER SALES TEAM: ROBERT GLENISTER AS DAVE MOSS KRIS MARSHALL AS JOHN WILLIAMSON STANLEY TOWNSEND AS SHELLEY 'THE MACHINE' LEVENE DON WARRINGTON AS GEORGE AARONOW DIRECTED BY SAM YATES AND RUNNING FROM 26 OCTOBER – 3 FEBRUARY AT THE PLAYHOUSE THEATRE Christian Slater (Mr Robot, True Romance, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), Robert Glenister (Hustle, Spooks), Kris Marshall (Death in Paradise, Love Actually, My Family), Stanley Townsend (Girl From the North Country, The Nether) and Don Warrington (Death in Paradise, RisinG Damp) are the ‘deal chasing’ cut-throat sales team in David Mamet’s masterpiece, Glengarry Glen Ross. This trailblazing modern classic, directed by Sam Yates, runs at the Playhouse Theatre from 26 October to 3 February 2018 for a strictly limited 14-week season. The play has won every major dramatic award on both sides of the Atlantic, making it an extraordinary theatrical success story. Its sensational world premiere at the National Theatre in 1983, earned it the Olivier Award for Best Play, whilst its 1984 Broadway premiere garnered multiple Tony Award nominations and just a year later, it won the Pulitzer Award for Drama. In 1992 the play was adapted by Mamet into an Academy Award nominated film featuring an all-star cast including Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey and Jonathan Pryce.
    [Show full text]
  • Press Release
    PRESS RELEASE 19 SEPTEMBER Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce casting for the Winter Season 2018, its plans for a year-long cycle of history plays from February 2019, and Globe Associates, to include Sean Holmes, who is to become Associate Artistic Director. Michelle Terry, Artistic Director, said: “As the UK approaches its exit of the EU, our theatre will present a cycle of history plays, providing a unique opportunity to rediscover how Shakespeare perceived ‘this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England’. Richard II in this year’s Winter Season begins a year-long exploration of what our sceptered isle looks like now, presenting a journey through history via Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, and Richard III. I am so proud to announce my core team of Associate Artists who will help guide and deliver on the season, as well as support the development and continuing exploration of The Globe Ensemble. The Ensemble allows us to truly explore the DNA of Shakespeare’s plays, all of which were written bespoke for a company of players and made for the architecture of our unique play houses. Most of the artists have worked with us in some capacity this season and I am so excited to welcome Sean Holmes to the Globe family. Sean’s unprecedented experience on Secret Theatre will provide invaluable insight into a process and a practice that is so important to me and to the work that we are experimenting with at Shakespeare’s Globe.” Sean Holmes said: “Michelle’s vision for the Globe is exciting, inclusive and bold - focused on the centrality of ensemble and the honest and open relationship between actors and audience that it engenders.
    [Show full text]